Heritage inside out: uses of the past to reclaim the city
Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Cities worldwide have always been spaces of difference – individuals from all walks of life negotiate their everyday life in relation to the conduct of others, and organise in groups and engage in politics, virtually and materially, in urban public spaces (Merrifield 2013). Since mid-nineteenth century however nationalist movements have used these spaces to edify the public about a common heritage and future, and to produce collectively shared experiences and a national identity (Smith 2006). These ideological uses of the past have been reviewed in the emerging field of critical heritage studies and described as a process of ‘heritagisation’ (Harvey 2001) through which the past has been ‘re-invented’ (Hobsbawm 1983) and re-used. Smith (2006, 17: 299) sees this process as an “authorized heritage discourse” (AHD) associated with the “grand narratives of Western national and elite class experiences”. The process produced a new form of collective imaginary ‘common’ defining for nation-state cultures and other forms of ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson 1983), yet also expanding with time and gaining partial global reach through UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention (1972) and its designation of “outstanding universal values” to some artefacts, be they tangible or intangible (Hammami 2012). Potential heritage that falls outside the desired narrative of value may in the process be cleansed, destroyed, or neglected (Baillie 2013).
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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